NPS eyes joint bid for stake in power plants
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80% shareholdings in 10 state-owned facilities on offer to foreign investors
National Power Supply (NPS) is keen to join with a Nigerian partner to do business in the African country, where the government plans to allow foreign investors to purchase 80-per-cent shareholdings in 10 state-owned power plants to upgrade and operate them.
The plants have combined capacity of 5,000 megawatts.
Chairman Sitthiporn Rattanopas said NPS would join with a Nigerian partner to bid on such operations, and its revenue would come from providing its staff to operate and maintain the plants. The company, which is expected to submit the bid proposal next month, is preparing Thai staff and examining their capabilities to see how many plants they can operate and maintain.
The company has also explored an opportunity to invest in the electricity business in Bangladesh after its parent Double A (1991) set up paper factory in the country.
NPS has two power plants in Thailand, each with production capacity of 150MW. The plants utilise waste from paper production to generate electricity. Of total production, 180MW is sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the rest supplied to factories in the industrial zones.
Sitthiporn said the company was prepared to take part in a bid to set up additional natural-gas-fuelled small-power-producer plants with capacity of 150MW each. The National Energy Regulator is to invite tenders soon.
In addition, NPS is interested in investing in power plants that use garbage to generate electricity. The company will utilise German technology to convert garbage into a liquid state, which will be used as fuel. NPS is in talks in Lampang, Surat Thani and Chiang Mai on the possibility of establishing such plants these three provinces. Each plant will have capacity of 10MW and use 300 tonnes of garbage per day.
